Beautiful Heidelberg

I guess it’s OpenStreetMap’s way of congratulating me on my 5th year as an active contributor when my scholarship application to the HOT Summit and State of the Map both held in Heidelberg, Germany this year was accepted.

I totally over-packed (17 kgs check-in baggage for a week) in anticipation of the cold weather (8 to 18°C) because I’m a tropical girl all the way. But Heidelberg wasn’t cold at all. It was sunny, bright, and the right amount of chill in the morning. The views were gorgeous, too.

Here’s the view from Philosophenweg, a quick but steep hike from Alte Brucke.

Hello from the other side. I also joined the guided old town and castle tour and got this view from the castle as a reward.

Advocacy Mapping

To improve my chances on the scholarship application, I submitted a talk about my advocacy mapping project in the Philippines. I’m a mom to a 4-year old who I breastfed for 2 years through sleepless nights, sheer exhaustion, extreme weight loss, and a few instances of shaming. I chose to map breastfeeding stations to raise awareness not only about the benefits of breastfeeding but also in the hopes that no mother will be shamed for feeding her child, and that she may have safe and accessible spaces to nurse, pump, or ease an engorged breast.

© 2019 Andi Tabinas

Echoing here tidbits of my project:

• Here’s the MapContrib theme where anyone with an OpenStreetMap account can add breastfeeding stations. Just login and click the pencil icon (“Add missing data”) and zoom in as close as possible and put the cross node on the map. The station uses the baby_feeding tag.

• This tiny project challenged me to get out of the norm of unbiased mapping and use the gender lens and my transition to motherhood to examine how I map.

Diversity and Inclusion

I attended a diversity and inclusion session during the State of the Map where our facilitators gathered insights and suggestions from participants about how the annual State of the Map and the larger OpenStreetMap community can be more diverse and inclusive. I had reservations on sharing a lengthy piece due to time constraints during the session and I think writing it here would make a clearer point.

I would like to share about this mapping conference I attended and co-organized in Dumaguete, Philippines last August. Pista ng Mapa (Festival of Maps) shied away from Manila or nearby cities and held the conference in the Visayas region. It provided scholarships to minorities and mappers coming from regional areas. A GeoLadies PH workshop was also held where female participants were encouraged to attend. These items, though, are common practices in local and global mapping conferences.

However, what Pista did differently was hold a women-led plenary session, which meant no other session was running at the same time. A brief scan of the program snippet below would tell you a little thing, that this conference did not hold back in giving space and time to underrepresented sectors, women, in this instance. Those who attended the workshop and plenary session spent half a day in a 3-day conference immersed in different women mappers’ perspectives.

A women-led workshop kicks off after lunch, takes a solid break to recuperate, and gets back on stage for a full plenary session.

If we truly want diversity and inclusion, we need to make time and create the stage for it. There are many ways:

• Make a plenary session about diversity and inclusion.
• Group similarly-themed talks and workshops in parallel so that participants get to attend at least one and not seek other sessions with an entirely different theme.
• Create programs, flyers, announcements, and other materials in such a way that they highlight diversity and inclusion. Providing child care, perhaps? Print that in glittering neon bold.

Fin

How open can OpenStreetMap get?

And since we’re talking about openness, diversity, and inclusion, imagine a doorway large enough to let anyone get through, but plain and uncaring. Now, imagine a morphing doorway. One time, it’s an archway that opens to a vineyard. On other days, it’s a ramp with handrails. Yesterday, it was a swing door for the neighbor’s cat.

I would love the OpenStreetMap community to be this family that is open to all and makes sure everyone is well accounted for and given space to thrive and belong, including the cat, and in Heidelberg, the monkey.

This is Jen, your friendly neighborhood Asian woman mapper, signing off. © 2019 Feye Andal

It was my first time to leave my husband with our wildling 2-year old to fend for themselves for close to a week. Prior to leaving the house, I was wondering if it was right to go as I stacked up the fridge with food and the closet with clean clothes. I packed my luggage and my hesitation instantly turned to excitement. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot in Davao! (Translation: I can’t wait to be relieved from mom duties.)

I got this mapping stint from Erwin Olario. He didn’t have other options as nobody else was available from the OpenStreetMap Philippines local community. (No competition!) The invite came from Tambayan Center for Children’s Rights Inc., a non-profit, non-government organization based in Davao City. There were roughly 30 participants all between 11 and 18 years of age. Managing that number would be quite tough for a two-man team but with the strong assist from the very warm Tambayan staff, the whole four days were a breeze.

Here’s a short account of what transpired during the mapping workshop:

Day 1. Erwin started the day with a mapping exercise where he asked the children to draw a map for a friend who would be paying a visit. Then, Erwin and I took turns in rolling out a series of lecture-exercise planned for the entire workshop, specifically for the following tools: OpenStreetMap ID Editor, Field Papers, and MapContrib.

Cognitive map. The kids were asked to draw a map that contains necessary details for their friend to be able to visit them.

Giving a demo of MapContrib! I’m also using this platform to map breastfeeding stations in the Philippines.

Day 2. Field day! We were divided into smaller groups to map areas in our assigned Barangays. We used Field Papers for this particular activity. The children were also briefed to use their smartphones with the GPS turned on to capture photos. Most of us were done around lunch time. The overachievers (led by Erwin, of course) mapped out additional areas while the rest of us, the normal guys, went on to validate the data we collected.

Kuya Ash seriously giving a recap of instructions to his team.

Pagoda na sa init ang mga mars!

Groupfie near a sari-sari store! These convenience stores are everywhere. There are more than five in this short street alone! (Excuse my haggard face.)

Day 3. Participants from the communities and government agencies joined us on the third day to help us validate our work. They sat with us in groups to double-check the areas we covered. We used the morning session to recap the tools we used the previous days. I also gave a background on how maps can be useful tools to help underrepresented sectors.

My presentation’s title is “Women Reprezent”. It’s about how women can enrich the mapping industry that has almost always been male-dominated.

Mr. Teodo Rey Adorable of the Department of Social Welfare and Development talks about the importance of children’s participation in disaster risk reduction and management; that it is more effective than just involving parents and adults.

Day 4. We spent the last day of the workshop mapping what we got from our field work with OpenStreetmap and MapContrib. The kids and staff were taught how to add the photos they took during the field work to Mapillary. Erwin also introduced them to a gamified Mapillary task where the winner gets a prize. Everyone was so competitive!

I was the timekeeper during the game. I would announce the minutes remaining and they would sigh in unison. Haha!

Davao oppa Harvey getting his prize from resident OSM oppa Erwin.

The workshop was an eye opener for me. I’ve had some experience teaching some of these tools before, but not with a group this young. At first I thought, would I be able to relate to this crowd? Would I be able to teach them the tools assigned to me effectively? Toward the end of the workshop, the curious questions came. So, I’m going to stop overthinking and tell myself that I might have done better than expected.

To cap off the workshop, the Tambayan staff and kids organized a solidarity night. I guess I can say I was able to relate to them in many other ways, too, as we danced to the same K-pop hits. To add to the fun, we discovered that Erwin should be the default volunteer guy from OSM Ph for all talent portions. He pretty much took down the night with his moves. I hope Neem posts his dance video as proof that I’m not making an exaggerated claim. (Peace out!)

On a different note, I enjoyed my stay at the Sanctuary and the amazing food served every day at the Mindanao P.O. Complex.

Take a look at some of the snaps below to see for yourself.

They serve fresh fruits (papaya, watermelon, etc), white meat (no pork), and lots of vegetables.

More food! Their rellenong bangus is to die for, pramis! I remember this dinner really well. I wasn’t able to sleep until past 2 AM because I was so full. (I think I can write another diary about the food. I might actually have more photos of what I ate there than everything else. Haha!)

Gah, I’ll miss this crowd! Thank you so much for the lessons and for contributing to OpenStreetMap and your community!

All photos were taken by Erwin except the one he’s in, the food shots, and the one where I took a selfie.

Signing out with the finger heart pose,

Ate Kim (LOL! This was my nickname during the entire workshop as coined by Ate Glorie.)